Joseph Smith and the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo

In early 1842, a small group of Latter-day Saint women in Nauvoo, Illinois, developed a proposal for a women’s society that would provide clothing for the men building the temple in that city. The women provided a draft constitution and bylaws for the society to Joseph Smith, who praised the ideas but suggested “something better.” On 17 March, he organized the women into a group called the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, stating that its purposes would include “looking to the wants of the poor,” “searching after objects of charity,” and “correcting the morals and strengthening the virtues of the female community.” Emma Smith was elected the first president of the society, and she appointed two counselors. After the Relief Society was formed, Joseph Smith continued to take a personal interest in it, attending a total of nine official meetings and delivering six sermons to members of the group, all in the year 1842.

Society secretary Eliza R. Snow and other scribes kept minutes of Relief Society meetings from that organizational meeting through 16 March 1844, the last time the society met in Nauvoo. The minute book is published in its entirety on both the Joseph Smith Papers website (images, transcripts, and brief introduction) and the Church Historian’s Press website (transcripts and extensive introduction and annotation). While the minute book is by far the most important record of Joseph Smith’s interactions with the Relief Society, several other records also provide valuable information.

Joseph Smith Sermons to the Nauvoo Female Relief Society

Relief Society Minute Book, entry for 17 March 1842 (see also JS, Journal, 17 March 1842) Joseph Smith attended most of the meeting, and his sermon begins on page 7; he also donated a five-dollar gold piece to the society (page 13)

Letter to Emma Smith, 31 March 1842 Joseph Smith and Brigham Young addressed Emma Smith and the Relief Society in an epistle, warning them of immoral individuals in and around Nauvoo who falsely claimed authority from church leaders; Emma Smith read the letter to the society the same day, and Eliza R. Snow transcribed a copy of it into the official Relief Society minute book

Other Relevant Material in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saints Women’s History